theiceman

BTW I was the moron ... that is just what i was saying to myself as I hooked up my ignition leads backwards and blew up my engine ...

Hope you get back on the road soon ...

JDSStudios

I remember well !
Now stop calling names to my friend.

JDSStudios

Update #2:
For those who followed this thread, one odd thing was that I could not find threads
in this forum, with other broken differentials on AWD.

Well, Pfaff Porsche returned my Friday phone call, this morning, and according to
the service adviser (Peter), several 996s and 993s have had their front differential
"burned", (to use his exact word) and therefore, replaced.

When asked about the reasons for failure:
Most failures were due to the differential seal leaking the oil, leading to internal failure.

What's with Porsche and "seals" leaking?

Bottom line: $5000.00 Differential, minus core exchange of $500.00,
plus labour and taxes, it will be north of $6500.00. I will know for sure at the end of this week.

Torontoworker

Have you had this car from day one? I wonder about torqe settings as you mentioned. Is it possible that an issue has developed because of previous maintenance not done to spec?

theiceman

Wow
Did your mech say if there was actually any gear oil in it when he took it apart ? Is it like a rear gearbox with a drain and fill port that you have to replace occasionally ?

Imo000

Looking at the pic for the ring grear and the missing bolt heads, look like all of them were slowly working their way out. Look at the remining bolt heads, looks like they backed out and started rubbing against the outter bearing race. The ring rear gor loose enough that the bolts were bing pounded by the ring gear carrier and they eventually snapped off (metal fatigue). Did anyone ever took this differential apart cause those bolts should not come loose this easily? Of nto that they were either not torqued down enough at the factory or maybe the tread locker was to applied to the ring gear bolts.

BUT if the wasn't enough oil in the dif, then the excessive heat could have loosed the tread locker and let the bolts to work their way out.

JDSStudios

No, I bought it used in May 2006. I also thought about torque specs, and mentioned it in a previous post.

JDSStudios

Clive
Interesting point, and I mentioned it to Henry (he worked at Downtown Porsche for
20 years, and was manager at the service department).
He said that if oil was missing, the bearings would cease. However, the bearings were fine.

theiceman

oh You had Henry look at it from refined motorsorts ? Man he worked on my 944 many moons ago at downtown.
er yeah I agree .. and if the oil were missing nothing would pour out when he opened it ...

JDSStudios

I completely agree the bolts did not come loose, because they all
actually broke, and five of them right at the head.

I can easily see the destruction to the gears, done by the loose bolt heads;
what I am not sure of is the cause.

Henry believes previous owner might have abused it, by doing
some hard launches. He told me that if racing, you have to be careful with fast
you left the clutch pedal go.

This might be the answer... cause I cannot think of anything else.

JDSStudios

Henry has his own location now on Queensway.
I saw around 15 Porsches 911s or so, in his facility when I lined mine up.
No other type vehicles in there.

He repairs and maintains Porsches ONLY (since 1964).
He also worked in Stuttgart EDIT: Porsche factory in Germany for several years, starting
in 1964, around the time the 911 came out.

... and he is also Portuguese.